[size=85:15d9q5zi]Sofia echo 16 July 2010
Bourgas airport marks increase in passengers numbers in H1 2010
Bourgas airport has reported a total of 441 168 passengers processed in the first six months of 2010, a 4.3 per cent increase over the same period last year, German operator Fraport AG, which holds the concession for the airport, said in a media statement on July 16 2010.
Fraport AG operates both airports in Bulgaria's Black Sea coastal cities of Varna and Bourgas.
There was an increase of tourists from Poland, the Czech Republic and Belarus so far this year. Fraport said that July was one of the busiest months for the airport with an average of 120 planes leaving or departing daily, but this summer the figure was expected to reach up to 140 flights daily.
Traditionally, Bourgas airport's most busiest destinations are Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, the Czech Republic, Israel and Poland, Fraport said.
Meanwhile, statistics for the Varna airport on the northern seaboard showed that about 370 000 passengers had been serviced in the first half of 2010, a decline of 3.5 per cent from last year. Russian, Austrian, Hungarian and Polish tourists were among those who had marked an increase this summer in comparison to 2009.
Varna airport services regular flights to Sofia, London, Vienna, Budapest, Moscow, Ekaterinburg, St Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Rostov, Berlin, Chisinau, Zurich, Warsaw, Odessa, Luxenbourg, Düsseldorf, Brussels and Oslo.
The airport also serviced new charter destinations to Bergamo, Tabriz, Ufa, Aarhus, Llodz, and Wroclaw, Fraport said.